Orlando August 2010 Part 4

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Day 4 - August 18 - Magic Kingdom, Disney Hollywood Studios and Downtown Disney




Once again, as much as I do love my walks from DBV to DHS, Epcot and back, I just could not bring myself to do it. Too darn hot...


This day the plan was for MK in the morning and DHS in the evening. We got up pretty early, had breakfast in the room and were at MK by 9:30. We opted to take the bus.

Doesn't she look excited?

As I wrote earlier, it was quite hot and, as Gabby had enjoyed JP so much the day before we decided a FP for Splash Mountain (SplM) was in order. Once we got there the posted wait was only 5 minutes so we got our FPs (10:20) and went ahead and rode. It was essentially a walk-on and, as expected, Gabby loved it despite having been afraid of the idea of a flume ride. Right next door is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR) so we decided to check it out. The posted wait time was 20 minutes but the actual wait was more like 5. After that we went on a morning attraction tear - Haunted Mansion (10 minutes posted, walk on), Jungle Cruise (15 posted, 8 actual) and Pirates of the Caribbean (10 posted, walk on). We then rode SplMt using our FPs. While we were on this "ride tear" I commented that I was surprised that they had stuck with me all this time. As I mentioned earlier I had given them permission to head off on their own if they like. "Are you kidding?" Marie said, "Without you we'd have no idea what to do. You know what you're doing!" Needless to say that made me smile... Anyway, we then headed over to Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain (SpMt) and discovered that the return time for FP was about the same as the estimated wait time (not uncommon), so we got FPs, killed time by riding Tomorrowland Transit Authority and hanging out in Tomorrowland. It was then that Nat and Marie showed their true colors. They had been admiring the princess costumes for sale throughout the world the entire time we were there, and even made pains to point out that they "really could fit into the largest size costumes". (They probably could - they're both pretty small.) But it was seeing the little girls walking around MK in their full "Bibidy-Bobidy-Bootique" finery that really sent them over the edge. Some 6-year old with full on Cinderella costume hair and makeup would walk by and they would say "look at her! She has got it goin' on! She is living the dream!" Anyway, after expressing their full-on envy of some princess loving toddlers we all then went back to ride SpMt.


By this time it was getting very hot so we left Mk and headed back to the hotel for lunch, naps, pool time and, in the case of Charlotte and Gabby, an obligatory viewing of "The Goofy Movie" (leaning tower of cheez-a!). I also did some laundry - gotta love staying at DVC!


We finally decided to leave the room about 7. We took the boat to DHS and found the park to be quite crowded. We headed down Sunset Blvd to see what the lines were like for TZToT and RnRC but they were both too crowded plus the FPs were sold out. So it was decided a little shopping was in order! We went to the Art of Animation where the girls bought some really cool posters. Everyone really wanted to do RnRC and TZToT so we tried again. The waits were still long but we decided to go for it. Good thing, too as the posted time for TZTot was 50 minutes while the actual wait was about 20. I actually find this to often be true of TZToT more than most attractions - the posted wait times are often very exaggerated. After our ride, as usual we stopped by "Picture if you will..." to view our picture. As we were looking at it Marie said "Look at Mr. Thompson and look at us. We're all screaming hysterically and he just has a pleasant smile". This became our new catch-phrase to indicate a wildly good time - having a "pleasant smile". In fact, when we went next door to ride RnRC (40 posted wait time, actually 30) Gabby said "When it goes to take our picture don't scream. Let's all just try to have a pleasant smile!" They actually made that a challenge for the rest of the trip - on any thrill ride, when the time comes to take the picture, maintain a "pleasant smile".




Are we at Downtown Disney yet?

OK, now came my one big mess-up trip planning wise for this trip. One thing Charlotte was dying to do was to eat at "T-Rex" in Downtown Disney (DD). The plan was to eat there this night. We left DHS and caught a bus the Caribbean Beach resort, arriving about 9:40. We then had a bit of a wait for the DD bus which arrived at 10:05. What I didn't realize was that most of the DD stores and restaurants - including T-Rex - close at 10. So, by the time we go there they were closed. This was exacerbated by the fact that it had started to rain. Well, we did manage to find the one restaurant that was still open - Planet Hollywood. By the time we got in and got seated it was after 11 and we were all pretty hungry. Our meal was $94 with tip. We left Planet Hollywood about 12:30, caught the bus back to DBV and immediately went to bed.